You control Space Mammoths in an epic space battle where your shots are effected by the gravity of destructible, planets, stars, wormholes, asteroids and black holes. Firing one of 16 different weapons, and controlling teams of ships you must win battles in over 40 story missions or fight in four player battles against friends. Coming Later this year to iPad, iPhone, Android, PC, Mac, Linux, Blackberry, Windows Tablet, Windows Phone and Ouya.

Until now, the levels of Mammoth Gravity Battles have been laid out fairly simplistically, usually placing planets at random and maybe a star or gas giant at the center. I want the capability to layout with more control and structure, especially for the various campaign levels where I want each location to feel different and present a new challenge to the player. That's the plan anyway. So the new layout engine is shaping up; it can generate the shapes and structures and importantly set-up realistic gravitational motion. Using this, I can populate levels with interesting shapes such as asteroid belts or planetary rings and set them orbiting. I've been pushing the many body gravitational simulation to its limits – its likely some of these more complex scenarios with hundreds of asteroids won't be achievable on mobile, but if my little laptop can manage them, most PCs should be fine. I've got some plans to make the many body gravitational simulation less demanding on the processor, so I might be able to achieve more in the future.

An example of the more advanced layout: A star surrounded by an asteroid belt makes for an interesting battleground. The asteroids orbit under the gravity of the star.

I've been working on the single player campaign/story mode for Mammoth Gravity Battles. The story mode guides the player through all the games exciting features one at a time, trying not to bore or overwhelm. Its a balancing act. Each of the 50+ levels is a new challenge, introducing a new kind of battle, target, weapon or environment. Some levels at the start will be very easy to complete and unlock the next one, but achieving the full three star rating will be more of a challenge and will require multiple attempts.

Starting in a quiet backwater, war soon threatens the Mammoths:
The first sector of 12 levels will be as part of the Mammoth Deep Space Mining Corp, a rough bunch of mammoths who spend their time in the planar asteroid fields on the edge of the galaxy. These missions will gently introduce the most important aspects of the game, although they are not training missions, there is a separate "mammoth school" sector for the tutorial. All the mining missions will be on 2D maps and feature one mammoth ship to control and simpler weapons. The first couple of missions are asteroid mining work; tag selected asteroids with markers and crack them with mining explosives. After not long bandit mammoths present a problem that needs resolving and a more sinister plot is discovered, war is likely to result.

When war does break out, things get tricky fast:
The war missions are more demanding, with multiple ships to a squad, tactics become more important and the introduction of fully 3D levels adds another dimension to the game-play (obviously). Further types of environment keep things changing, as do escort and convoy attack missions and rocket turrets and bases. Its here we first meet the deadly cruisers, large armored ships that can fire two shots per turn.

The war extends to other nations:
With blue and yellow mammoths dragged into the conflict, the missions become highly tactical affairs as three or four teams fight together. The war will only be won if suitable alliances can be formed and then one by one the enemy nations defeated. Ending in a suitable boss-style battle, this should feel like a significant achievement.

Mammoth Games:
Following the wars the nations of mammoth decided to hold gladiatorial games to resolve disputes, preventing further conflict. These games are an excuse for pure dual style battles, played over multiple rounds with scoring within the story mode. Expect each level to be harder than the last and the final battles to be extremely tough just to win, let alone score a top rating.

Working on the campaign, here is a picture of one of the more nasty enemy ships you will encounter int he "war" levels. The Mammoth Missile Cruiser fires two shots per round one from each side turret, and can take considerably more damage. It is however a much bigger target, so will be easier to hit.

I'm really looking forward to this as I love artillery games and the use of gravity is quite clever. I remember playing another artillery game a few years ago that used a gravity mechanic, but it was very simplistic and left me feeling disappointed. This game looks much more polished and detailed.

Hey, nearly there on iPad. We've just released to windows phone and windows 8 store. I want to get some feedback from them, make any improvements/changes and then get it onto Android and iPhone/ipad. So probably 1-2 months away... I'm very excited, the really daunting task is going to be getting the word out.

The game will be paid for once, no in app purchases. Price will be low.

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